Текст книги "Elephant Song"

Автор книги: Wilbur Smith

Соавторы: Wilbur Smith
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Текущая страница: 32 (всего у книги 36 страниц)

Especially the tobacco?  Pirri's tone became an ingratiating whine.

You did not bring me the whole head.

The skin and hair were missing.  Therefore I cannot give you the whole reward.

And I will give it to you only when you bring me the teeth of the elephant, as we agreed.

Pirri let out a shout of anger and drew his machete.  Put that knife away, said Chetti Singh reasonably.  Or I will shoot your head off with this.  He showed the pygmy the Tokarev pistol concealed in the pocket of his bush jacket.

Pirri's scowl became a beatific smile.  It was only a little joke, O master.  I am your slave.  And he sheathed the machete.  I will go and fetch the teeth of the elephant as you command.  He picked up the severed head.  But as he skipped away into the forest Pirri's guts and chest were filled with so much anger that he thought they might burst.

Nobody cheats Pirri, he whispered, and slashed at a treetrunk with the machete as he ran.  Pirri will kill the man who cheats him, he promised.

You want a head, O one-armed and greasy man.  I will give you a head.

Your own.  Daniel Armstrong is dead, Chetti Singh told them.  The Bambuti brought me his head He died in the forest.  There can be no doubt?  President Taffari demanded.  None at all, Chetti Singh affirmed.

I saw the head with my personal eyes.  That means the woman is the only living witness.  Ning Cheng Gong looked relieved.  You should get rid of her immediately, Your Excellency.  She should disappear in the forest, just the way that Armstrong did.  Ephrem Taffari picked up his empty glass and rattled the ice cubes.  Captain Kajo hurried across the room and took the glass from his hand.  At the small bar in the corner of the president's office he Poured gin and tonic.  Aren't you forgetting the videotape?

Taffari asked, as Kajo respectfully handed him the drink.  Of course not, Cheng said.  But once she has recovered the tape from the embassy we must get rid of her.  He hesitated.  I could arrange that personally. Ephrem Taffari smiled at him over the rim of the glass.

Ah, yes.  He nodded.  I have heard that you have a rather unusual hobby, Mr.  Ning.  I am not quite sure what you are implying, Mr.

President, he answered stiffly.  I was merely offering to make certain that the job was done properly.  We don't want any more loose ends.

Quite right, Mr.  Ning, Taffari agreed.

The woman is becoming a bore.

I have lost interest in her.  Once we have recovered the tape, she is yours.  just make certain that there are no mistakes.

Trust me, Mr.  President.  Oh yes, Mr.  Ning, I trust you just as completely as you trust Me.  After all, we are partners, are we not?

My arrangement with Danny was that he would pick it up personally. Sir Michael Hargreave inspected his fingernails with some interest and then placed his hand in his pocket and went to the window of his office in the British embassy.  He looked out over the lake.  Daniel didn't say anything about handing it over to a third party.  You must understand my position, Miss, A, Miss Mahon.  The punkah fan on the ceiling squeaked and whirled and Bonny thought quickly.  She knew that she must not appear too eager, even though she was acutely aware of what the consequences might be if she returned to Ephrem empty-handed. I didn't realise it would be a problem.  She stood up.  Danny asked me to pick it up.  He'll probably be bitter with me for not bringing it back, but I don't imagine the tape is of any real importance.  I'm sorry I didn't think to ask Danny for a note.

Anyway, thank you for your time and I'll explain to Danny that you couldn't see your way clear to handing the tape to me.  She held out her hand and gave him her sexiest smile, thrusting out her bosom.  Sir Michael's gaze wavered from her eyes, and then he seemed to make up his mind.  Look here, I suppose it will be all right.  I mean, you are Danny's assistant.  Not as though you were a total stranger.  .

He hesitated.  I don't want you to do anything you feel is not right, Bonny told him.  I'm sure Danny will understand that you didn't trust me.

Good Lord, my dear young lady, it.  isn't a case of not trusting you.

Oh, that's what I thought it was.  She fluttered her eyelids at him.

Would you mind signing a receipt?  Sorry to be so awkward, but I must cover myself with Danny.  I understand, Sir Michael.  He scribbled out a receipt on a sheet of the embassy stationery and she signed it and wrote out her full name and passport number at the foot of the page.

Sir Michael went into the adjoining room and she heard him put a key into a lock and then the metallic sound of the door lugs of a steel safe opening and closing.  A few minutes later he returned and handed her a bulky manila envelope with Daniel's name printed on it.  She tried not to make her relief apparent, but her hand shook as he handed it to her.

Please give Danny my best salaams.  Sir Michael walked her to the front door of the embassy.  When is he coming back from Sengi-Sengi?

I'm flying up to join him this afternoon.

Bonny had her nerves under control and chatted easily.  They shook hands at the door.  Having one of our regular cocktail parties next Saturday, Sir Michael said.  if you and Danny are back in town by then, you must come along.  I'll have Miss Rogers send you an invitation to the guest house.  The news of Daniel Armstrong's disappearance had not yet been reported to the embassy.  Ephrem Taffari wanted all the loose ends tidied up before the alarm was raised.

Bonny went out to where Captain Kajo was waiting at the wheel of an army Landrover.  She clutched the envelope in her lap, but managed another smile and wave for Sir Michael as they pulled out of the embassy gates.

Then she let out a deep breath and fell back against the seat.

President Taffari is waiting for you on his yacht, Miss Mahon, Captain Kajo told her, and took the lakeside road down to the harbour.

The yacht was moored at the naval jetty beyond the fish factory.  The vessel had been the toy of a wealthy Asian businessman, one of those whom Taffari had deported and seneback to the United Kingdom when he came to power.  of course, he had confiscated all the Asian's property, and this vessel was now the presidential yacht.

It was a forty-five-footer Camper and Nicholson with lovely lines, equipped with every luxury, although most of the electronic equipment had long ago failed and had not been replaced, and the paintwork and sails were no longer pristine.  However, the bar was well stocked and since the yacht very seldom left its berth, the lack of navigational and sailing gear was not critical.

There were two men in the main cabin, seated at the red teak saloon table facing each other.

President Taffari was perusing the monthly operating report and profit-and-loss accounts of UDC, smiling and nodding as he did so.

Ning; Cheng Gong was watching him expectantly.

When Taffari lowered the document and looked up, Cheng answered his smile.  I am impressed, Mr.  Ning.  It is only a very short time since you arrived in Ubomo to take control of the company, but the results are really quite spectacular.  You are very gracious, Your Excellency.

Cheng bowed slightly.  But I can truthfully say that I expect an even greater improvement in the months ahead.  There were many problems that my English predecessor left for me, but these are being resolved.  What about the vehicle maintenance depot?  This is one of my major areas of concern.  Taffari's smile faded.  And rightly so, Mr.  President.  We have over a thousand heavy vehicles in service, not counting the actual MOMU installations.  Our maintenance costs were running at over three million dollars a month when I took over.  As you can see, I have managed to reduce these by almost forty percent.

Their discussion lasted another hour before there were footsteps on the deck outside and a polite knock on the cabin door.

Who is it?  Taffari called.  Captain Kajo, Mr.  President, and Miss Mahon.

Taffari glanced at Cheng significantly and the Chinaman nodded.  This was the reason that the meeting was being held on board the yacht, rather than in the boardroom at Lake House.  Come in!  Taffari ordered, and the door slid aside.  Kajo stooped his long frame into the cabin and saluted awkwardly.  I have Miss Mahon waiting in the Landrover on the dock, he reported.

Did she pick up the packet?  Taffari asked anxiously.  Yes, sir.  She has it with her.  Again Taffari and Cheng exchanged glances, but now both of them were smiling again.  All right, Captain.  Taffari nodded.

You have your orders.  Yes, Mr.  President.  I am to accompany Mr.

Ning and Miss Mahon on the expedition to Lamu Island and I am to – No need to repeat them, Captain, Taffari interrupted.  Just carry them out to the letter.

Now you may bring Miss Mahon aboard.  She burst into the cabin and went directly to Ephrem Taffari, ignoring the other man at the table.

I've got it, Ephrem, she gloated.

Here it is.  She laid the envelope in front of him and he picked it up, tore it open and shook out the video cassette.  Are you sure this is the one?  Yes, that's my notation on the label.  My handwriting.

It's the one, all right.  Well done.  I am extremely pleased with you, Taffari told her.  Come and sit beside me, my dear.  She accepted the offer with alacrity and Taffari laid his hand on her thigh below the table-top.

Captain Kajo, Taffari ordered.

There is a bottle of champagne in the refrigerator.  This calls for a celebration.  Kajo went to the bar and busied himself with the bottle.

The cork popped and a little froth gushed on to the carpet.  It was Australian rather than French, but none of them complained.

Kajo turned back to the bar, screening the row of glasses on the bar while he poured the wine.  He gave Bonny her glass firsttand then served the others in order of their seniority.

Taffari lifted his glass towards Bonny.  To you, my dear.

You have saved me and my country from a potentially damaging situation.

Thank you, Mr.  President.  Bonny took a mouthful of the champagne.

She noticed but did not remark on the slightly bitter aftertaste, for she had learned not to give him the least pretext for offence.  And when Kajo refilled her glass, she drank it without question.  The unpleasant taste was less noticeable now.  I thought we might go for a sunset cruise on the lake, Taffari told her, and Bonny smiled at him but her cheeks felt strangely numb.  That would be fun, she tried to say, but it came out slurred and jumbled.  Bonny broke off and stared at them. Their faces were receding and there was a ringing sound in her head.  It became louder and her vision was darkening.  There was only a tiny hole in the centre of the blackness in which she could see Ephrem's face, as though through the reverse end of a telescope, small and remote.

His voice boomed and echoed in her drugged brain.  Goodbye, my dear, he said, and her head dropped forward on to the table-top.

There was silence in the cabin for a full minute after Bonny Mahon had collapsed.  Then President Taffari gathered his papers and placed them in his briefcase.  He stood up and Kajo hurried to open the door for him.

Taffari paused in the doorway and looked back.  Ning Cheng Gong was still seated opposite the unconscious girl.  He was watching her with a strange pale intensity.

At the head of the gangplank Taffari paused to talk to Captain Kajo.

Make sure the yacht is washed thoroughly before you bring her back to port.

You know how to use the pressure hose?  I do, Your Excellency.

Taffari went down the gangplank to his Mercedes and Kajo stood to attention and saluted as he drove away.

The yacht's diesel engine was already running, the exhausts bubbling softly under the stern.  Kajo cast off the lines and went to the wheel.

He eased the yacht away from the jetty and turned her bows towards the harbour entrance.

It was a two-hour run out to Lamu Island, and the sun had already set when he dropped anchor in the lee of the uninhabited horseshoe-shaped rock.

We have arrived, Mr.  Ning, he said into the voice tube.  Help me, please, Captain.  Kajo went down into the cabin.  Bonny Mahon was lying, still unconscious, on the carpeted deck.  Between them they carried her up into the open cockpit and while Kajo held her upright Ning strapped her wrists and ankles to the stainless steel railings.

He spread a nylon sheet under her with the end hanging over the stern, to make it easier to hose down the deck later.  I don't need any further assistance, he told Kajo.

Take the rubber dinghy and go ashore on the island.  Stay there until I call you.  No matter what you may hear you will remain ashore.

Do you understand?  Yes, Mr.  Ning.  Cheng stood by the stern rail and watched Kajo in the stern of the dinghy disappear into the darkness. The little three hp outboard puttered softly, and the beam of Kajo's flashlight threw an erratic beam in the darkness.  At last he reached the island and the outboard motor cut out into silence.  The flashlight was extinguished.

Cheng turned back to the girl.  She sagged against her bonds.

She looked very pale in the cockpit lights and her hair was an untidy copper bush.

Cheng took a few moments longer to savour the moment.

Physically the woman was unattractive to him, and she was much older than he liked, but none the less he felt his excitement mounting.  Soon he would, be so absorbed and transported that such small adverse considerations would be of no account.

He looked around him carefully, taking his time, considering the circumstances.  Lamu Island was twelve miles from the mainland and the lake crocodiles infested the waters around it.

They would immediately devour any offal that was dropped overboard.

On top of which he was under the protection of President Taffari.

He went back to the girl and adjusted the tourniquet around her upper arm, massaging the veins in the inside of her elbow until they stood out thick and blue in the cockpit lights.  He had used the drug on many previous occasions, and he kept the antidote and disposable syringe available at all times.

Only seconds after he injected the antidote, Bonny Mahon opened her eyes and peered at him groggily.  Good evening, Miss Mahon.

Cheng's voice was throaty with excitement.  You and I are going to have a little fun together.

There had been an almost immediate rapart between Daniel and Sepoo.

It was strange for in every way they were completely different: in size and colour and shape and mentality there was no similarity whatsoever.

It had to be a thing of the spirit, Daniel decided as he followed Sepoo through the forest.  They were children of Africa, its pulse beat in both of them, its soul was their soul.  They understood and loved this land's beauty and savagery and treasured its bounty.  They understood and loved its creatures and counted themselves merely one amongst this multitude of species.

When they camped that night they sat close to each other beside the fire and talked quietly.  Sepoo spoke to him of the secrets and the mystery of the forest and the deeply felt beliefs of his people, and Daniel understood.  In some measure they were his beliefs too and he accepted the reasons for the customs of these people as Sepoo explained them, and admired the wisdom and virtue of their lore.  Sepoo called him Kuokoa, which meant The one I rescued.  Daniel accepted the name, even though he knew it was meant as a monument to Sepoo's deed and a reminder of his debt to the old man.

They came to the MOMU track through the forest near SengiSengi in the late afternoon and lay up at the forest edge until it was dark.  Then they crossed the open groun in the night.

Sepoo led Daniel to the logging road where he had abandoned the Landrover almost ten days previously but even Sepoo could not lead him directly to the stranded vehicle.  It was only the following day that they at last found the Landrover exactly as Daniel had left it behind its screen of dense undergrowth, sunk to its axles in the soft forest floor.

There were no fresh human tracks around it and the video equipment was still in its aluminum carrying cases.  Daniel laid it out on the tailboard of the vehicle and checked it quickly.

The camera was not working.  Either the batteries were flat after standing so long, or else the moisture had penetrated the mechanism.

Daniel noticed droplets behind the glass of the lens and condensation beaded the casing.

It was a bitter– disappointment, but Danny could only hope that the batteries could still be recharged or that a rudimentary cleaning and drying, once he reached Gondola, would get the camera serviceable again.

He gave Sepoo the case of cassettes to carry while he took for himself the camera, the lens and the spare battery packs, a burden of almost seventy pounds to lug through the steaming forest.

Heavily laden as he was, the return took almost twice as long as the outward march and it rained most of the time.  As soon as he reached Gondola, Daniel recruited Victor Omeru's assistance.

He knew that Victor was a qualified electrical engineer.

Victor had built and installed a turbine generator beneath the waterfall at the head of the Gondola glade.  It generated 220 volts and almost ten kilowatts of power, sufficient to supply the community with lighting and to operate Kelly's laboratory equipment.

So Victor was able to place the battery packs for the video on charge and found only one of them was defective.  The camera and the lens were a different problem altogether.  Daniel would not have known where to begin to look for the fault, but Victor stripped the camera and cleaned the condensed moisture.

He checked the circuits and found one of the transistors was blown.

He replaced it with one that he cannibalised from Kelly's gas spectroscope.

Within twenty-four hours he had the VTR functioning again, then he took down the lenses and cleaned and dried them out and reassembled them.

Daniel realised just what a difficult task the old man had undertaken in such primitive conditions.  If you never get your country back, I've always got a job for you, sir, he told Victor.  That's not such a good idea, Kelly warned him.  You'd probably end up working for him.

All right, Daniel said.  I've got a camera.  Now what do you want me to film?  We leave tomorrow morning at first light, Kelly told him.

I'm coming along, Kelly, Victor Omeru told her.

I don't think that is very wise, Victor.  She looked dubious.  You're much too valuable.  After all my hard work, I deserve a little reward, don't you think?  He turned to Daniel.  Besides which, you might have another breakdown in the equipment.  Come on, Doctor Armstrong, put in a good word for me.  Chauvinists, both of you, Kelly protested.  You're ganging up on me just because I am a female.  I'll have to call Pamba to my aid.  Hell no!  Daniel shook his head.  That is using too much gun!

But he shared Kelly's misgivings.  Victor Omeru was over seventy years of age and the going would be tough.  It was almost fifty miles to Wengu.

He was about to say so when Victor intervened quietly.

Seriously, Ubomo is my country.  I cannot rely on second-hand reports. I have to see for myself what Taffari is doing to my people and my land.

Neither of them could argue with that, and when the safari started out from Gondola the following morning, Victor Omeru was with them.

Sepoo had recruited eight men from his clan to act as porters and Pamba appointed herself as caravan manager to make certain that they applied themselves and did not lose interest in the typical Bambuti fashion, dropping their bundles to wander off fishing or honey hunting.

Every man in the clan stood in awe of Pamba's tongue.

On the third day they reached the first of the bleeding rivers and the Bambuti men lowered their loads to the ground and huddled on the bank.

There was no laughter nor banter.  Even Pamba was silent and subdued.

Daniel climbed down into the stinking morass of red mud, dead animals and poisoned vegetation, and scooped a handful of it.  He sniffed it and then threw it from him and tried to wipe the filth from his hands.

What is it, Kelly?  He looked up at her on the bank above him.  What caused this?

It's the reagent that Taffari swore to you that he would never use.

She was dressed only in a cotton T-shirt and shorts with a coloured headband around her brow, and her small neat body seemed to quiver with outrage.  Victor and I have been monitoring the effluent from the mining operation.  At first it was pure mud.  That was bad enough.

Then recently, in the last few weeks, there's been a change.  They have begun using a reagent.  You see, the platinum molecules are coated with sulphides.  The sulphides reduce the efficiency of the recovery process by forty percent.  They are using a reagent to dissolve the sulphide coating and to free the platinum.  What does the reagent consist of? Daniel demanded.  Arsenic.  She spat the word like an angry cat.  They are using a two percent solution of white arsenic to break down the sulphide coating.  He stared at her in disbelief.  But that's crazy. You said it, Kelly agreed.  These aren't sane or responsible people.  They are poisoning the forest in a murderous orgy of greed.

He climbed up out of the dead river and stood beside her.

Slowly he felt her outrage seep into his own conscience.  The bastards, he whispered.  It was as though she realised the moment of his total commitment to her cause, for she reached out and took his hand.  It was not a gentle or an affectionate gesture.  Her grip was fierce and compelling.  You haven't seen it all yet.  This is just the beginning. The real horror lies ahead at Wengu.  She shook his arm demandingly. Come!

she ordered.  Come and look at it.  I challenge you to remain on the sidelines after you have seen it.  The little column moved on, but after another five hoursmarch the Bambuti porters abruptly halted and dropped their packs and whispered together.  Now what is the trouble?

Victor wanted to know, and Kelly explained.  We have reached the boundary of the clan hunting area.  She pointed ahead.  From here onwards we will be entering the sacred heartland of the Bambuti.  They are deeply troubled and perplexed.  So far only Sepoo has seen what is happening at Wengu.

The others are reluctant to go on.  They are afraid of the wrath of the forest god, the Mother and Father of the forest.  They understand that a terrible sacrilege has been committed and they are terrified.

What can we do to persuade them?  Daniel asked, but Kelly shook her head.  We must keep out of it.  It is clan business.  We must leave it to Pamba to convince them.  The old lady was at her best now.  She spoke to them, sometimes haranguing them shrilly, at others dropping her voice to a dovelike cooing and taking one of their faces in her cupped hands to whisper into an ear.  She sang a little hymn to the forest and smeared ointment on each of their bare chests to absolve them.  Then she performed a solitary dance, shuffling and leaping as she circled.  Her withered breasts bounced against her belly and her skirt of bark cloth flipped up at the back to expose her surprisingly neat and glossy little buttocks as she cavorted.

After an hour one of the porters suddenly picked up his load and started along the path.  The others, grinning sheepishly, followed his example and the safari went forward into the sacred heartland.

They heard the machines at dawn the next morning and as they went on the sound became louder.  The rivers they crossed were waist-deep and thick as honey with the fearful red poisoned mud.

Apart from the distant growl and roar of the machines, the forest was silent.  They saw no birds or monkeys or antelope, and the Bambuti were silent also.  They kept close together and they were afraid, darting anxious glances into the forest around them as they scurried forward.

At noon Sepoo halted the column and conferred with Kelly in a whisper. He pointed towards the east and Kelly nodded and beckoned Daniel and Victor to her.  Sepoo says we are very close now.  Sounds in the forest are very deceptive.  The machines are working not more than a few miles ahead.  We dare not approach closer for there are company guards at the forest edge.

What are you going to do?  Victor asked.

Sepoo says there's a line of hills to the east.  From there we'll be able to overlook the mining and logging area.  Pamba will stay here with the porters.  just the four of us, Sepoo and i, you, Daniel, and Victor, will go up on to the hills.

Daniel unpacked the VTR and he and Victor checked it.  Come on, Kelly ordered, before the light goes or it begins to rain again.

They climbed the hills in Indian file with Sepoo leading.

However, even when they came out on the top they were still hemmed in by the forest.  The great trees soared high overhead and the undergrowth pressed in closely about them, limiting visibility to twenty or thirty feet.  They could hear the bellow of diesels below them, closer and clearer than before.  What now?  Daniel wanted to know.  Can't see a damned thing from here.  Sepoo will give us a grandstand view, Kelly promised, and almost as she said it, they reached the base of a tree that was a giant amongst a forest of great trees.  Twenty pygmies holding hands can't encircle this tree, Kelly murmured.  We've tried it.

It's the sacred honey tree of the tribe.

She pointed at the primitive ladder that scaled the massive trunk.

The pygmies had driven wooden pegs into the smooth bark to reach the lowest branches and from there they had strung liana ropes and lashed wooden steps that ascended until they passed out of sight into the forest galleries a hundred feet above where they stood.  This is a Bambuti temple, Kelly explained.  Up there in the high branches they pray and leave offerings to the forest god.  Sepoo went first for he was the lightest and some of the pegs and steps were rotten.  He cut new ones and hammered them into place with the blade of his machete, and then signaled the others to follow him.  Kelly went next and reached down to give Victor a hand when he faltered.  Daniel came last, carrying the VTR slung over his shoulder and reaching up to place Victor's feet on the ladder rungs when he could not find them for himself.

It was slow progress, but they helped the old man up and reached the upper gallery of the forest safely.

This was like the land at the top of Jack's beanstalk, an aerial platform formed by interlinked branches and fallen debris.  New plants had taken root in the suspended leaf mould and trash and formed a marvelous hanging garden where strange and beautiful flowers bloomed and a whole new spectrum of life flourished closer to the sun.  Daniel saw butterflies with wings spread as wide as his hands, and flying insects that sparkled like emeralds and princely rubies.  There were even lilies and wild gardenias growing in this fairyland.  Daniel caught the flash of a bird so jewelled and splendid that he doubted his own eyes as it vanished like a puff of brilliant smoke amongst the foliage.

Sepoo barely allowed them to rest before he began to climb again.

The trunk of the tree was half as thick at this level, but still as huge as its neighbours had been at their bases.  As they went higher so the light changed.  It was like coming up from the depths of the ocean.

The green submarine glow brightened until abruptly they burst out into the sunlight and exclaimed with wonder.

They were on the top branches of the sacred honey tree.

They looked down upon the carpet of the forest roof.  It spread away, undulating like the billows of the ocean, green and unbroken on every side, except in the north.  All their eyes turned in that direction and their cries of wonder faded and they stared in horror and disbelief.

In the north the forest was gone.  From the base of the green hill below them, as far as they could see to the north, to the very foothills of the nowclad mountains the forest had been erased.  A red plain(of desolation lay where once the tall trees had stood.

None of them could speak or move.  They clung to their lofty perch and stared speechlessly, turning their heads slowly from side to side to encompass the enormity of the bare devastated expanse.

The earth seemed to have been raked by the claws of some rapacious beast, for it had been scoured by the torrential rain waters.  The topsoils had been torn away, leaving stark canyons of erosion; the fine red mud had been washed down to clog and choke the rivers through the forest.  It was a desolate lunar landscape.  Merciful God!  Victor Omeru was the first to speak.  It is an abomination.  How much land has he defiled?  What is the full extent of this destruction?  It's impossible to calculate, Kelly whispered.  Even though she had seen it before, she was still stunned by the horror of it.

Half a million, a million acres, I don't know.  But remember, they've been at work here for less than a year.  Think of the destruction in another year from now.  If those monsters she pointed at the line of MOMU vehicles that were strung along the edge of the forest at the foot of the hill, if those monsters are allowed to continue.  It was an effort for Daniel to drag his eyes from the wide vista of destruction and to concentrate on the line of yellow machines.

From their high vantage point they seemed as tiny and innocuous as a small boy's toys left in the sandbox.  The MOMU were in a staggered formation, like a line of combine-harvesters reaping one of those endless wheat fields on the Canadian prairie.  They were moving so slowly that they appeared to be standing still.  How many?  Daniel asked, and counted them aloud.  Eight, nine, ten" he exclaimed.

Running side by side that gives them a cudine almost four hundred yards wide.  It doesn't seem possible that just ten machines have been able to inflict such terrible damage.  Victor's voice shook uncertainly.

They are like giant locusts, remorseless, insensate, terrible.  The caterpillar tractors were working ahead of the line of MOMUs, scything the forest to make way for the monstrous earth-eating machines to follow.